GATES, HORATIO, an American general of the Revolutionary war, was born in England in 1728. Ile received his military training in the English army, served in the West Indies, and accompanied General Braddock in his disastrous expedition against the French settlements on the Ohio iu 1755. [Baannocx.] Being wounded in that affair, and obliged for a time to retire from active service, ho purchased an estate in Virginia. Ile took the popular side in the Revolutionary troubles, and was appointed adjutant-general on the breaking out of the war. In 1776 he was sent to command the army on Lake Cham plain. His conduct at first was not approved of, insomuch that he was superseded iu the spring of 1777; but in the following August he was appointed to oppose General Burgoyne, who had forced his way from the Canadian frontier to the Hudson. An indecisive battle took place on the 18th of September, and a second on the 8th of October, in which the British were defeated. General Gates then blockaded his adversary at Saratoga, who, being disappointed in his hope of forming a junction with the Royalist troops on the Hudson, and cut off from all supplies, found it necessary to capitulate with his whole army.
The convention of Saratoga was one of the moat important suc cesses gained in the whole war, for nearly 6000 men surrendered on parole not to serve again, and their arms and artillery were converted to the use of the victors. Gates became the popular hero of the day ;
and attempts were made by some intriguiog partisans, or misjudging friends, to raise him over the head of Washington. Fortunately for America these attempts came to nothing. In June 1780 he was appointed to command the southern army, which at that time was in a wretched state of disorganisation. It is no wonder therefore that on his first meeting with the British troops (Conawatus) ho received, though greatly superior in numbers, a total defeat.. This took place on the 16th of August, at Camden, in South Carolina. By great exertion ho was again lu condition to take the field, when he received news that he was superseded by General Greene, and that Congress had resolved to submit his conduct to a court of inquiry. The hives ligation lasted until after the close of the war in 1782: in the end he was fully and honourably acquitted of blame.
General Gates then retired to his Virginia estate, from which in 1800 ho removed to New York, to the freedom of which city ho was immediately admitted. In the same year he was elected a member of the state legislature. Before his departure from Virginia he performed the noblest act of his life—the emancipation of his slaves, which lie accompanied with a provision for those who needed assistance. Ho died on the 10th of April 1806.